


Lift My Spirits

by ThePagemistress



Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 13:05:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11669703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePagemistress/pseuds/ThePagemistress
Summary: Valtteri gets stuck in a lift with Dan. It's about as ridiculous as he imagined it would be.For the Tumblr dialogue prompt: “Of all the people I could’ve gotten stuck in an elevator with and it just had to be you.”





	Lift My Spirits

“Wait, what about this one?” Dan asked as he began scrolling through another Spotify playlist on his phone.

“Please stop,” Valtteri said, making him pause as his finger hovered over yet another Parkway Drive song. Perhaps 4 was the Finn’s limit. Dan pocketed his phone and began bouncing on his toes, then rocking back and forth on his heels, then whistling, then playing drums on his thighs in accompaniment.

Valtteri sighed. “Of all the people I could’ve gotten stuck in an elevator with and it just had to be you.”

Dan grinned in response. “Could be worse, mate.” He wasn’t forthcoming with any examples so Valtteri wasn’t sure he agreed.

After a brief silence, Dan inevitably broke it. “You ever seen Devil?” he asked, leaning his back against the lift wall.

“The Devil?”

“No ‘the’, just ‘Devil’. It was horror movie about a bunch of people stuck in a lift. And they all get killed in really gross ways,” he said, grin still in place.

“By the devil, I assume,” Valtteri said, settling against the opposite wall.

Dan hesitated, trying to remember. “You know what? I forget. It was pretty shit to be honest. Hey! What about Resident Evil?” Valtteri shook his head. “Bunch of folk stuck in a lift, one woman thinks she can fit through the doors but as she gets her head through, bloody thing starts back up! Only she can’t back into the lift, she’s stuck.”

“Let me guess; killed in a really gross way?” Dan imitated a beheading as best he could. “Perhaps we don’t do that, then.”

“Good call. Wait for the professionals.”

Valtteri paused for a moment before saying, “Like in Speed.” He couldn’t bite back the smile as Dan lit up at his engagement.

“Yeah! Although hopefully all we’ve gotta worry about is a broken lift.”

“True. Do good things ever happen in movie elevators?”

Dan hummed in thought. It wasn’t that Valtteri cared, per se. He was just finding the chatter a nice distraction from the fact that he was stuck in a lift with no ETA of rescue. “There’s that bit in Drive where Ryan Gosling beats the shit out of that one guy and then makes out with Carey Mulligan.”

“I’m not sure that qualifies as a good thing.”

“Well, part of it is.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of something we could maybe do to pass the time.”

“Oh, way to let me down easy, mate, I see how it is.” Dan said, chuckling to himself.

“Sorry, you are just not my type,” Valtteri retorted, broadening Dan’s grin.

“What about in there?” he asked, pointing to Valtteri’s backpack. “Anything useful?”

Valtteri crouched down to rifle through it. “Not really. Mostly water. A banana. Granola bars-”

“Why do have a hippo?”

Valtteri’s hand paused, frown on his face before he pulled out a stuffed animal a fan had given him just before he got into the hotel. “This?” he asked. Dan nodded. “This is a Moomin,” he corrected, sounding more than a little indignant.

“It’s got a Mercedes logo on it,” Dan said, poking it in the stomach where it did, in fact, brandish a Mercedes logo on a makeshift t-shirt for young Moomintroll.

“It does. You’ve never had things from fans like this?”

“God, when I moved up to Red Bull, it was like suddenly everyone gave a shit and I was drowning in all kinds of crap. Not that fan stuff is crap but you know what I mean. I tried keeping it all at first but you know…I don’t really have room for more than thirty inflatable kangaroos holding Red Bull cans.”

Valtteri chuckled, grabbing himself one of the granola bars while he was there. Dan continued. “You seem to be popular with the fans this year. Surprised?”

He was bit caught off guard with the question but supposed it was fair enough. He was popular in the paddock while at Williams but it couldn’t be denied that he didn’t have the biggest fan base. He knew a lot of those Finnish flags in the crowd weren’t for him. “A bit. Felipe always gets a lot of support so that was usually how it went and I thought it would be the same or even moreso here with Lewis. But maybe not. So yes, it is surprising a little bit.”

“They do like a winner,” Dan said.

“What do you have to offer?” Valtteri asked, pointing at the bag that Dan had brought with him.

The Aussie sat himself down on the floor, legs spread out in front of him as he began taking out the contents. “Water, bananas, Red Bull - gotta stay on brand,” he interrupted, “-snacks, snacks, more snacks…Don’t think we’ll be going hungry any time soon, at least!” He wasn’t kidding. Pretty much all he had packed into the bag was food. “Anything take your fancy?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Can’t tempt you with a Red Bull? Scared you’ll get blasted by Mercedes for drinking the wrong energy drink?” he asked, waving a can of Red Bull up at Valtteri.

“I would be more scared about having to drink it out of your shoe.”

Dan made a disgusted noise, arms drooping to his sides as his head thunked back against the wall. “Do you ever just…regret your life choices?”

Valtteri grinned at him as he decided to join Dan on the floor, back up against the opposite wall, munching on his granola bar. “You’ve left your mark.”

“Great, just what I wanted to be remembered for!” Dan said. He didn’t sound too disgruntled about it but it was obvious that it was a genuine agitation. “It was just a laugh. Now it kinda feels like an obligation, you know? People expect it and chant for it. You heard them at that London thing, right?” Valtteri nodded. “I’m a people-pleaser. Gotta do what the people want! But I’m also pretty sure it can’t be good for you.”

“I know I will not drink it.”

“Yeah no shit! Never seen you move so fast off the track. Can’t blame ya.”

They sit in silence for a little bit but it’s no longer a silence that needs to be filled. It’s comfortable and easy. But still, Dan feels an obligation to break it after a few minutes. “So…tell me some hot goss about Lewis.”

Valtteri blinks at Dan, unable to tell if he’s serious. “Are you serious?” Right to the point.

“Course. I’ll trade you. Dirt on Lewis for dirt on Max.”

“But I don’t care for anything about Max.”

“…Well that’s just stupid cos it’s really good. Solid dirt, could probably get some good cash from a tabloid for this.”

“Well, I don’t have anything on Lewis. I don’t really talk to him or want to know about his personal life,” Valtteri said, bluntly. It was better that way. He’d seen what getting friendly with Lewis got you.

“Fuck it, I’ll tell you anyway,” Dan said, practically vibrating with his desire to spill. He leaned forward, Valtteri instinctively doing the same. “He only went and set fire to his apartment.”

Valtteri waited for more details. It didn’t appear there were any. “And?”

“What do you mean ‘and’?! He literally set fire to his bloody apartment. Had to put it out with an extinguisher, fire department had to come out, our whole building had to be evacuated. Didn’t own up to it but I know. Wild, right?”

Valtteri continued to stare at him. “Well. He is a teenager.” Dan stared back, mouth agape at the non-reaction to his blatantly awesome story. “You didn’t set fire to your home when you were his age?”

Dan’s mouth snapped shut as he continued to stare. He narrowed his eyes at the Finn before saying, “Has anyone ever told you that you can be very scary at times?” Valtteri just shrugged but there was a hint of a smile there that told Dan he absolutely had been told that and knew how to milk it for all it was worth.

After another lull in the conversation, Valtteri made a grab for the banana and Dan grabbed his phone to see if he had any notifications. “How long have we even been in here? Feels like awhile. Did you see what time it was when you pressed the alarm button?” When a response wasn’t immediately forthcoming, he looked up from his phone to see Valtteri frozen with the banana in his mouth.

Eventually he took the bite before responding. “I didn’t push the button. I thought you pushed the button.”

They stared at each other for a couple of seconds before they both looked up at the big red button next to Dan. Silently, he reached up and smacked it with his hands. A siren blasted their ear drums, making them jump. “Yep! Guess neither of us did that. Well then.”

Moments later, a voice crackled over the speaker. “Elevator 2. We are aware of the malfunction but were unaware of anyone in there. We will send someone to your location immediately. Could you please relay the situation. How many are in there and what was the delay in requesting help?”

Dan suddenly felt like an idiot and so decided to wave at Valtteri, beckoning him to reply. After another prompting “hello?” and more aggressive waving from Dan, Valtteri finally spoke up. “Yes, hello. It is just two of us. We uh. There was a delay because I was having to deal with a very…a very hysterical woman in here. I wanted to calm her down.”

Dan looked affronted at suddenly becoming an hysterical woman but then, because he had a penchant for being an idiot, the role overcame him and he couldn’t help himself. “I just can’t bear tight spaces!” he said, voice going high and, for some reason, Southern American. “Young man, I’m startin’ to feel faint again!” And old, too. From the sigh that came over the comms system, he knew they weren’t buying it but the sight of Valtteri Bottas almost bursting from a fit of giggles was enough to push him onward. “The vapors! It’s the vapors, comin’ on! Go on with out me, boy. It’s too late for-”

He was interrupted by the sound of the lift lurching back into action. “Oh hey, we did it!” he said, falling immediately back into his normal accent.

“I hope you weren’t too inconvenienced. Ma’am,” came the possibly amused, possibly irritated it was hard to tell, voice over the speaker. Neither of them responded, to busy fighting back their laughter.

When the lift dinged and they were finally free, there were people waiting outside, giving them slightly odd looks. “Afternoon,” Dan said, giving them a nod with a completely straight face which almost set Valtteri off again.

Once they rounded the corner, Dan stopped them both in their tracks. “Alright so. How about we never speak of this incredible display of stupidity to anyone? OK?”

“Which part? Neither of us pushing the button or your Gone With the Wind?”

“ _All_ of it,” Dan replied with a sweeping arm gesture.

“I don’t even know what you are referring to.”

“Nice.”

Dan put his fist out and was gratified when it was met with a returned fist bump. They each headed their separate ways but both with matching grins on their faces.


End file.
